JOHN BAGFORD, BOOKSELLER AND ANTIQUARY

MILTON MCC. GATCH

JOHN BAGFORD (fig. i) was born in London, lived his sixty-five or sixty-six years there, and was buried in the city in May 1716.^ From at least 1686 until his death, he was at the centre of the London book trade, involved both in the dispersal of existing collections and the formation of a number of the great libraries. Among those he helped to build were three that became the backbones of two great public collections: the libraries of Robert Harley and Hans Sloane which, together with the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, became the core of the British Museum, and John Moore's hbrary, which King George I bought in 1714 and presented to the University Library in Cambridge. At least two nineteenth- century bibliophile historians believed that Bagford's own collections, known chiefly for their wealth of title-pages from early printed books, were created by ripping these pages from sound copies of the books to which they belonged; they heaped opprobrium on him as a 'wicked old Biblioclast' and 'the most hungry and rapacious' of book and print collectors.^ The student who encounters Bagford through his scrapbook collections of title-pages and other materials illustrative of the history of printing and bibliography^ will find him at first a risible and incongruous figure. His hand, spelling, and syntax all betray a lack of formal education and of talent for organization. Yet balanced scholarship in the present century has found Bagford to be a credible dealer and collector, despite his manifest shortcomings.* More important, perhaps, is the fact that Bagford's contemporaries—not only book collectors but also major antiquarian scholars—found him an impressively learned and industrious man who was, however, prevented by his lack of education from achieving his scholarly ambitions. The great Oxford scholar, Thomas Hearne, recorded approvingly that one of the major book collectors, Thomas Rawlinson, had drafted a Latin epitaph for Bagford that summed up the contemporary view of his character and achievement: it described him as a British antiquarian through and through, whose simple resourcefulness surpassed the painstaking diligence of others, ... a simple man and without pretence.^ Bagford has been known chiefly as the collector of materials on the history of printing, book production, and bibliography, which were intended to serve as the primary sources for a major work on the history of printing; most of them are now in the Harleian collection of the British Library. Yet evidence survives, largely in his own collection, to demonstrate

150 Fig. /. John Bagford. Engraving by George Vertue, after the portrait by Hugh Howard that Bagford was not simply a bookseller and the aspiring historian of printing but also a considerable antiquarian scholar who made contributions to, or observations on, a number of the major projects of the day. It is to be hoped that a book-length study of Bagford taking full advantage of the wealth of material that survives for bis biography will one day be produced. In the meantime, this paper attempts in briefer compass to sketch the nature of Bagford's achievement as a professional bibliophile and amateur antiquary.

L BAGFORD AS AN ANTIQ^UARIAN BOOKDEALER Little is known of John Bagford's family and private life. The barest and yet most authentic outline of his birth, career, and death is provided by James Sotheby, who was with him shortly before his death, and reported to Thomas Hearne at Oxford: 'A little before his death Mr. Bagford told me be was 65 or 66, be could not say which, and I think born in Fetter-lane; and fiirst a shoe-maker at Turnstile, but that would not do; then a bookseller at the same place, and that as little; yet his genius and industry brought him to what you remember'.^ It is also known that Bagford's wife Elizabeth bore a son, John, in October 1675."^ Nothing more is known of Elizabeth, although it appears that the son was in 1713 a member of the Royal Navy; several of his letters to his father survive. ^ The elder John Bagford stated that he had been extensively engaged in the book trade since 1686.^ On the basis of his deathbed statement tbat he was 65 or 66 years old, it can therefore be assumed that his active involvement in the book trade began when he was in his mid-thirties. Almost our entire knowledge of Bagford is therefore as a professional bookman and amateur antiquary for slightly over thirty years at the turn of the century. The evidence for Bagford's professional activities is extensive, if hardly systematic. Tbere is a great deal of reflection on, and correspondence with him in the Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne, the manuscripts of wbich are almost all in the Bodleian Library's Rawlinson collection. There is considerable correspondence in Bagford's own papers and in other collections. Exchanges with Sloane, for example, are preserved in British Library MSS. Sloane 1435, 4039, and 4040, and MS. Harl. 4966 is an album of correspondence received by Bagford. Many other letters to him (or copies of them) are scattered among the volumes of his collection in the Harleian manuscripts (e.g. MSS. Harl. 5096B, 5910 part iv) as sources for the history of printing. From these and other of his papers we learn much about Bagford's professional associations with a number of figures well known in London bookselling circles in the early eighteenth century, among them Christopher Bateman, John Murray, and John Bullord, who in the first years of the century moved from London to Amsterdam, where Bagford and others visited him.^° Harl. 5996, in the Department of Printed Books, is a scrapbook which contains advertisements for book sales and other materials having to do with the book trade. Many of the auctions for which announcements are preserved in this collection were held at Tom's Coffee House in Ludgate, which was also a frequent posting address for Bagford. However, the document which gives perhaps tbe greatest insight into Bagford's activities in the book trade is MS. Hari. 5998, for which the British Museum's eariy spine

152 title is *Bagford Book of Accounts' and which contains documents dating from 1702 to 1708. The importance of this volume was recognized by Fletcher,!^ but only recently has it been used in detail, by Dr Margaret Nickson of the British Library in her study of Bagford's dealings with Sloane, one of his major clients. ^^ MS. Had. 5998 contains a list of addresses of clients and associates (fols. 1^-2); a number of lists of books delivered to one Richard Tasell, a binder (fols. 4, 9^, etc.);^^ and some record of dealings with a copyist, who may have produced some of the more legible fair copies of Bagford's own writings in his albums (fol. 10^). Its primary contents, however, are lists of books delivered to clients. Among these clients are a number of persons whose connections with Bagford are already well known; John Moore, Bishop of Norwich at the time of these accounts and later of Ely; Harley, here often designated by his public office as *M^ Speaker' and 'M^ Secretary'; Dr Sloane; and Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley, who had known Bagford when he was at Oxford in the 1690s and continued to be a close friend and associate in London.^''" An impression of the kind of trade in which Bagford was involved may be gained from the record in MS. Harl. 5998 of his dealings with one particular client, Browne Willis (1682-1760), who is less well known to posterity, but who emerges as a major customer and a considerable collector. Willis, a Member of Parliament for Buckingham from 1705 to 1708, Hved at Whaddon Hall, near Fenny Stratford and Bletchley in Buckinghamshire, and was active as an antiquarian throughout his long life, specializing in the English cathedrals and the local history of Buckinghamshire.^^ Thomas Hearne visited him at Whaddon Hall—travelling on foot from Oxford^in 1716, and recorded that he saw 'only two old MSS.' but was impressed with the materials 'for the Antiquities of Bucks' and with the expense to which Willis had gone in assembling his collections, 'which much surpass my Expectation'. ^*^ At the time of Hearne's visit, Willis had just begun publication of one of his major works, Notitia Parliament aria: or^ an History of the Counties^ Cities^ and Boroughs in England and Wales . . ., an account of the historical bases of representation in the House of Commons still of value. Willis was a minor star in the great galaxy of English eccentrics in the eighteenth century. The late Joan Evans has observed of his part in the re-founding of the Society of Antiquaries in 1717 that Willis had inherited from Bagford, who had been a member during the short-lived attempt by Wanley to re-establish the Elizabethan Society in 1707 8, the role of the 'eccentric of the Society'.^^ In MS. Harl. 5998, accounts for Willis bearing dates in 1704, 1705, and probably extending into 1706, appear at fols. 13-14, 18, 19, 20^, 21, 34, and 44^. Approximately 170 items are listed, and the total amount involved in these invoices seems to be a little over 3£i2—a seemingly small sum today, but not inconsiderable in the early eighteenth century, Willis may even have over-extended himself in his purchases from Bagford, for the latter made a note at fol. 21^ of an accounting on 13 March [1705?], when the sum of Willis's purchases was £10. 85. M. but only ^2. 35. had been paid. He seems to have paid a further {,2. IS. 6d. on this occasion and returned books valued at j£ i. 155. 6d., leaving a balance due of £5. Fols. 13-14 of MS. Harl. 5998 are a bifolium on which Bagford entered accounts for

153 . 2. The account of January 1705 for Browne Willis, from Bagford's Book of Accounts. MS. Harl. 5998, fol. 13^ 1704-5 (fig- 2).^^ Fol. 13V (page 3 of the bifolium) is transcribed here as a sample of the transactions between Bagford and Willis. 3 M^ Willes January y^ —1704/5 1 of y*^ uryns ould English in folo 1-6 2 A Herball by Turner in foli Cutes 1-6 3-5 4° pamplets 1-3 4 Barnardine Ochine aganst y^ pope 1-6 5-y^ Life of Merlin i-o 6-7 peney Meriments 0-6 7 y^ Expedicion into Scotland 0-6 8 y^ History of y^ Union of Eng Wales Scot & Irland 6 9 y^ flower of frendship 0-4 10 Gossons playes Confuted 0-6 11 Bosworth feld by Beamont 0-6 12 y^ Life of King Alfred by powell i-o 13 procedinges in y^ House of Lordes by Scobell with Seldens Baronage 1-6 r4 A Treates of y^ Barons of y^ Land 0-6 15 Intitusiones Juris Anglicani by Cowell i-o 16 :ii heades & 2 outher pictures 2-6 17 y^ Remedie of Reason 0-6 18 S^ Will Davenet & outher pocmes i-o 19 A volom of tractes Relating to pouer 1-6 20 A treates paraeneticall i-o 21 Decres of y^ Counsell of trent 0-6 22 2 peces of Wickleeffes 2-0 23 Defence of Brutes by harue 2-0 24 ye Booke of S"^ Albanes by G:M: i486: prented 1595 1-6 25 Darrell against Harsnet 0-6 26 A Booke of fishing & foulin &c 2-6 25 Nashes workes in one volom 5-0 28 Aganst uesery 0-6

I-14-71' A number of these works can be identified with some certainty:^^ 2. William Turner. Herbal. Possibly STC 24365 or 24366, folio, 1551, 1562; more probably the corrected ed., STC 24367, folio, 1568. Presumably 'Cutes' denotes cuts or plates; Bagford's more usual spelling was 'cutts'. 4. Bernardino Ochino. A tragoedie or dialogue of the uniuste primacie of the bishop of Rome. Tr. ]. Ponet. STC 18770, 18771, 4°, 1549. 5. Thomas Heywood. The hfe of Merlin. Wing H1786, 4°, 1641. 7. William Patten. The expedicion into Scotlade of Edward Duke of Somerset STC 10476 K 8°, 1548. 8. Richard Taylor. A history of the union. . . . Wing T550 or T551, 4°, 1698.

155 9- Edmund Tilney. A brief and pleasant discourse of dudes in mariage, called the Flower. . . . STC 24076 et seq.^ 8°, eds. of 1567-87. 10. Stephen Gosson. Playes confuted in fiue actions. STC 12095, 8°, [1582]. 11. Sir John Beaumont. Bosworth-field with a taste of the variety of other poems left by. . . . STC 1694, 8°, 1629. 12. Robert Powell. The life of Alfred, or Alvred. Together w. a. parallell of K. Charles. STC 2O161, 12*^, 1634. 13. Henry Scobell. Remembrances of some methods, orders and proceedings heretofore used and observed in the House of Lords . . . To which is added the priviledges of the baronage of England when they sit in Parliament, by J. Selden. Wing S929, 8°, 1689. 14. Perhaps there is some confusion with the second (Selden) title in item 13. 15. John Cowell, Ll.D. Institutiones juris Angiicani. Wing C6642, 12°, Oxford 1664; or Wing C6643, i6^ Oxford 1676. 17. Charles Gibbon. The remedie of reason. STC 11820, 4°, 1589. 18. Sir William Davenant (1606-1688). (Precise volume not identifiable; evidently bound with works of other authors.) 20. A treatise paraenetical . . . Wherein is shewed the way to resist the Castilian king. By a Pilgrim Spaniard. Now Englished. STC 19838, 4°, 1598. 21. Trent. See STC 4610-4611, 24264. 22. John Wiclif Two short treatises, against the orders of the begging friars . . . STC 25589, 4°, 1608. 23. Richard Harvey. Philadelphus, or a defence of Brutes and the Brutan history. STC 12913, - 4^ 1593- 24. G[ervase] M[arkham]. The Gentlemans Academy, or the Booke of S. Albans; containing three . .. Bookes; the first of Hawking, the second of... Hunting and the last of Armorie, all compiled by Julian a Barnes . . . i486: and now reduced into a better method. STC 3314, 4°, 1595- 25. John Darrell. A detection of that sinnful and ridiculous discours of S. Harshnet. STC 6283, 4°, 1600. 26. Perhaps related to, or a version of, the Book of St Albans. 27. The price suggests that several writings published in the lifetime of Thomas Nash had been bound together. There had been no collected edition of Nash's works by Bagford's time.

There are evidently no incunabula in this invoice, but of the twenty or more datable items in the list, ten are sixteenth-century publications, and only two or three post-date the Restoration of 1660 or the Great Fire of London of 1666, in which so many books were destroyed. Bagford did on other occasions sell Willis two volumes from the earliest English printer, however: Caxton's Boethius 'de Colsilatonie' (fol. 14^; STC 3199, I478[?])> priced at 35. 6i., and the translation of Christine de Pisan's 'y^ fayttes of Armes' (fol. 21; STC 7269, [1489]), priced at 25. bd. There were also some treasures of early English drama, notably a composite volume containing two interludes, noted on fol. 34, Lusty Iuuentus (STC 25148, [1550?], or later editions) and KingDaryus (STC 6277,1565), bound with a copy of the translation of Pope Pius Ill's The Goodly History of the... Lady Lucres (STC 19970, I553[?]). It is probable that the 'Mouther Gertens Nedell' on fol. 14 is William Stevenson's Gammer Gurtons Nedle (STC 23263, 1562-3; or STC 23268,

156 1575)- A number of classical authors, several in English translations, were added to Willis's library by purchase from Bagford, as were such English writers as Spenser. Willis also seems to have had an interest in courtesy books. In addition to the entries on fol 13"^ related to The Book of St Albans, the fountainhead of much of this literature, fol. 34 apparently records the sale of a copy of Copeland's unauthorized version of r.1561 (STC 3312) and of the Mascall adaptation as printed by Wolfe in 1590 or 1600 (STC 17572,17573). He also purchased in the same batch A Jewell for Gentrie by T. S., based on The Book ofSt Albans (STC 21520, 1614). The works of John Jones on The bathes of Bathes ayde and The benefit of the auncient bathes ofBuckstones (STC 14724a.3, 14724a.7, 1572) (fol. 34) and of'Chapman of y^ Bath'—Henry Chapman, ThernKs rediviva. Wing 1953,4°, 1673 (fol. 14)—evince another special interest. Willis's historical and antiquarian pursuits are represented by John Hardyng's Chronicle . . .from the first e begynnyng of England {STC 12767 or 12768, each in two parts, 1543) (fol. 19, no. 11) and Payne Fisher's Tombes monuments and sepulchral inscriptions . . . in St PauPs Cathedral (Wing 1041-3, 1684-8) (fol. 19), which recorded evidence destroyed by the Great Fire. Finally, one may note that like many other gentlemen of the age, Willis was amused by the literature of cuckoldry; the invoice at fol. 34 notes the purchase of a composite volume of 'tractes relating to Couckeldom' ('Y^ Jealous Gentleman', 'Y^ Womans Brawl', etc.) for 25., as well as of 'Erasmas his Epistell to y^ Bishop of Basyle Conserning y^ Eating of Flesh printed at London by Tho; Godfray 8; 1532' (STC 10489 or 10490, both 8°, there dated 1530P], i535[?]) for only 15. In comparison with the Harleys, Sloane, and Bishop Moore, Browne Willis was one of John Bagford's less important clients. Yet Willis was supplied with a variety of books of considerable value and of great bibliographical interest. Close study of Bagford's fragmentary records of transactions with his great clients and with Humfrey Wanley ought to lead the student to some of the very books sold by Bagford to these distinguished patrons. As has already been shown, however, even an incomplete survey of his dealings with a lesser client, Browne Willis, demonstrates that Bagford was a bookseller of importance in London in the last years of the seventeenth and the first of the eighteenth centuries. His achievement in the profession on which all his activities as a collector and antiquary centred can no longer be undervalued; and we may, therefore, be doubly grateful that in Bagford's collections there are richer resouces for the study of his career in the book trade than survive for any of his contemporaries. These records, in fact, survive precisely because of his antiquarian activities, having been swept by Harley into his library with the collections on the history of printing, for which he purchased Bagford's remains.

IL BAGFORD AS THE HISTORIAN OF PRINTING As a bookseller, Bagford aided other antiquaries materially by providing them with the resources necessary for tbeir studies. As a collector and scholar himself, he gathered tbe extraordinary collection of writing and printing samples and of title-pages of books from throughout the world, now part of the Harleian Collection in the British Library, as 157 documentation for an ambitious history of printing and the printed book. In 1707 Humfrey Wanley wrote that Bagford's albums were 'many of them in some sort of Order and Method, and others not'.^^ In their present state, printed and manuscript materials havmg been divided nearly a century ago between the Departments of Manuscripts and Prmted Books in the British Museum, they seem inchoate if not incoherent until considerable time has been spent studying them in conjunction with Bagford's writings on the history of printing. At the time of Bagford's death, however, the antiquarian community was aware of his collection and regarded it as valuable. Indeed, there was a scramble by collectors to secure it. In his letter to Thomas Hearne James Sotheby recorded that Bagford died in lodgings at Islington on Saturday, 5 May 1716, and that his body was brought to his room at the Charterhouse in preparation for burial from the chapel there the following Monday. One 'Mr. Clifton, a vintner', provided 'four bottles of sack to be drunk at his funeral' and took possession of his property; [Bagford] neither left will or direction about his things, so all entirely (by order of the Commons) are come into the hands of Mr. Clifton, above-mentioned, his principal creditor, to whom he was indebted 70/. besides several years' interest in arrear. I have lately been with him, and put him in mind that the collections ought not to be separated, but carefully preserved in order to be perfected and reduced to method by some able person (which all your friends wish were yourself) both as due to Mr. Bagford's memory, and the best way to reimburse himself, which he assured me should be d^^ Hearne believed he was supposed to have received the Bagford collections. Lord Harley personally informed the Oxford antiquary on 19 December 1716 that he had acquired them and the portrait of Bagford by Howard for his library. Although there is no evidence that Harley's librarian Humfrey Wanley participated in the acquisition, Hearne believed Wanley was involved in snatching from him materials 'almost certainly designed for me' of which he then made no use.^^ Bagford's collection itself was described in his own time by Humfrey Wanley (in the volume oiPhilosophical Transactions referred to below) as well as more recently by A. W. Pollard. Only an exhaustive catalogue and analysis could improve upon these descriptions. What perhaps can be contributed at the present time is a better understanding of the scope and method of the project for which the collection was intended. In 1707, with the assistance and encouragement of Sloane and Humfrey Wanley, Bagford made an effort to procure subscriptions to his history of printing so that he could complete and publish the work in a short time, 'or sooner if Encouraged'. Whether because the number of subscriptions received would not support the project,^or because Bagford did not himself have the scholarly and intellectual resources necessary for the task, the work seems to have gone no further. An attempt to reconstruct some sense of what sort of book Bagford had in mind can only be made by reviewing the outline of the project printed by Sloane as Secretary of the Royal Society in its Philosophical Transactions for 1706-7^^ and Bagford's own Proposals for Printing an Historical Account of that most Universally Celebrated^ as well as Useful Art of Typography ..., a pamphlet he

158 printed to attract subscriptions, and which includes a sample essay on the life and work of the first English printer, William Caxton.^^ The 'Essay' in Philosophical Transactions plunges immediately into the issue of the origin of printing. Bagford is against the thesis that printing originated in China and considers Roman medals, seals, and stamping in pottery to have been models more readily available to those who developed the technology of printing in the fifteenth century. Block printing was the first step, and Bagford points to the manufacture of playing cards as a very early development, still practised in his day. He believes that the first block books were printed at Haarlem in Holland, and outlines the materials and methodology involved at some length. Picture blocks preceded blocks on which text was carved. Single (i.e. movable) types were first made of wood and later of metal. The latter development is, of course, the crucial one; and, says Bagford, 'Here we must intirely give the Honour to the never to be forgotten Peter Scheffer ofGrenschen, Servant and afterwards Son-in-Law to Faust, who entertain'd him to Work in his House at Mentz\ Fust and Schoeffer of Mainz were to be given priority over ^John Guttenburgh^ because 'we cannot find one Book with his Name and Printing'.^"^ The related development of metal-plate engraving is also mentioned. Tracing the subsequent history of the technology of printing, Bagford mentions developments ranging from impression on a single sheet, improvement of the quality of material on which to print and in the inks that were employed, the introduction of'Rowling-press Printing' in the seventeenth century, watermarks on paper as a guide to age and place of manufacture, and bookbinding, to printers' devices and the history of printing houses. There is a long excursus on two journeys Bagford had made to Haarlem with John Murray and John BuUord in search of evidence for the history of printing, in particular relics of that other early printer. Coster. After a short outline of the history, referring to specimens demonstrating his thesis on its development, Bagford tells his readers that he has deposited two folio volumes for inspection in the public library created hy Archbishop Tenison in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, which give a sense of his collections, 'collected and put together at no small cost and pains; perhaps the first of that kind that ever was done in any part of Europe'.^^ As though by afterthought, he adds that the history will include a special chapter on the history of printed editions 'of the Holy Bible, Testament, Psalms, Primer^ and other Books of Devotion, from the beginning of the Reformation down to 1600'. Humfrey Wanley's ^Account of Mr, Bagford's Collections for his History 0/Printing' follows immediately, intended doubtless as expert witness to Bagford's resources by a great librarian and cataloguer of manuscripts. The Proposals cover much the same ground but also indicate that the history will include bibliographies of early printing arranged by countries. These are, of course, the reason for gathering the extensive collection of title-pages, which Wanley said 'informed me of many Books I had never heard of before'. England was to receive special attention. In addition to a chronological treatment, Bagford planned to discuss the introduction of printing at various locations in England. To the Proposals is appended an essay on the first English printer, William Caxton, intended as a sample of the kind of treatment that would

159 ujOO(3fa^hv^^'am ^^

Fig. J. A copy of the Proposals by one of Bagford's amanuenses in an early and brief version. MS. Rawl. D. 396, fol. 43^. Reproduced by permission of the Curators of the Bodleian Library be given to the major figures in the history of printing. Thomas Hearne remarked of this that it displayed a want of'judgment as well as learning' and would have to be rewritten. ^^ A recent comment on Bagford's work recalls Dibdin's belief that Wanley had edited the *Essay' for publication in the Philosophical Transactions, remarking that Bagford could not have written it unaided.^° Manuscript evidence does not survive that would allow this hypothesis to be tested adequately, although an autograph copy of a large portion of the *Essay' in the form of a letter to Dr Sloane suggests that Bagford was, in fact, responsible for its authorship. ^^ Some of Bagford's writings survive only in fair copies made by his amanuenses, who may have done some editing and almost certainly regularized his spelling and punctuation.^^ In the case of the Proposals^ however, it can be shown that (although he had generous assistance from fellow antiquaries) Bagford was very much in control of the composition and development of this descriptive advertisement for and sample of the history of printing. It is possible to study various stages of the text of the Proposals in both manuscript draft and proof Early manuscript drafts survive in MS. Rawl. D. 396, for example; fol. 43, in the hand of an amanuensis (fig. 3); fol. 44, an autograph approximately as first printed; and fol, 27, a manuscript of the early version of'The Life of William Caxton'. Harl. 5906b, 28-9, is an early proof of the Proposals with a simple, block-cut initial P, the shorter list of subscription agents, a plain heading for the 'Life of Caxton', and a short form of the 'Catalogue' of Caxton's books. At 30-1 of the same album is a proof of an intermediate stage (fig. 4), with the final more decorative form of the initial P and the elaborate border-heading for the Caxton 'Life', a lengthened text and revised list of subscription agents, and further corrections in Bagford's hand. The proof at Harl. 5908, 83-4, incorporates these corrections and seems to represent the final form of the Proposals. A letter from Thomas Tanner to Bagford offered detailed suggestions for revisions of the Proposals^ which 'should be as correct as possible', and another lamented the loss of notes Tanner had been gathering for Bagford.-^^ Since Bagford preserved these letters in the album with the early and intermediate proofs, one can assume he either adopted the suggestions or preserved them for use in the history of printing. The manuscript copies of the Proposals and the 'Life of Caxton' preserved in MS. Rawl. D. 396 were probably made by Bagford for consultation with other antiquaries. Some may have come directly from Bagford to Hearne, but most seem to be among the papers Hearne says he obtained from Dr Richard Mead, a fellow antiquary.^ Despite all this evidence, it is difficult for a modern scholar to believe that Bagford could ever have produced a satisfactory history of the very difficult subject of the technology and bibliography of printing. Yet it is necessary to respect the opinion of contemporaries of the magnitude of Hearne, Sloane, and Wanley that the collection was an important one and that Bagford himself, despite his manifest limitations, was an impressive and learned figure. Indeed one's respect is increased by a reading of the few passages from Bagford's papers that have been published by modern editors—the account of the sources of his own collection and the essay on bookbinding, in particular. ^^ When a detailed study has been made of all the manuscript material by Bagford in the British Library's Harley and Sloane

161 PROPOSALS F O K

RINTING anHrsTORicAt ACCOUNT of that moft Unucrially Cclebratedj as well as Ufeful /^rt of Typgraphy \ from its firft Inven- tion by the iUumiiators, with the Steps and De- grees of rhe lmpr(ivcment of the ^rt ofPrhting, trom its fitft Ori'anal, as Chance may I,iy Claim to the Iti'vtntion, as by the ievcril Specimens I ihall exhibit in tb Courfe of tlie Hilloty, with Molds or Blocks of Wood: Firft, tbe Arms of C H R 13 T, a C R u- ciFii, e^c. the ABC, and fevcral Uooks of Figures wbich ^s?ere tbe Laymens Kooks ; firfl: pradifed at Mmt-z. by John FaiiJI, and Peter Scheffer his Servant: And tbey for fevml Years made uie of the for. mer Molds in or for their Book-mnkinj, wbich they laiproved to the making of whole Pages, and fome tim< after invented fiiigle Types firft Cut in Wood, and afccr fome Trials broudit to Perfedion in Metal; hh the Teflimony of Erafmas, in a Preface to a ^ruy. Printed at I y I 8, by John Schtfer, the Saa of Peter above mentioned. t^miadeus Gahy of tbe Srate of Learnin^in the Reign of Le'wis X I. his Critical Remarks an old MSS andPnnied Books; with the Hiftoryof Jo.FatiJly and of his Printing tbe Bible in La/m, 14.61. Vuh the Story of I'rinting at Harlev., as is related by Hadmn^u- vius, Horniu!, Scri%-eras, <^c. by Lawtnce John Coufler ( or r.ithct hy John Guitenhurg, from/Wifn?^;.) With an Account of tbe old lllumhiaors, tlicir f^veral Sorts of Ink, and its Improvement i tbe fcveial waj'; of Printing before the Ufc of PrefTcs. The wbole intermix'd wicb man/ Curious .mJ Gntic.il Remarks. A Difcourle o{Calcography, or Ingravng on Pewter, Br.ifs and Copper PLiresj CHtringonWood, with lomeRetiarksoii tbe fitlT:Performers . An Hillorical Relation of the Antiquity of Paper m.idc witb Rags, and tbe Places famous for making of t: With (omc Critical Obfcr- vations on the particular Marks of thefirll Paper-Makers: A Subject never touch'J on before. A Catalogue of Books firft Printed, ftom the Year 14J7, (with Dates) to 15 CO, in fevcral Pans of£wr(7ff, :\iGeriiiany, Holland, Flan- ders, Prance, Italy, SwitzerUnd, and feveral Parts of 5pm. Its Progrefs into tbe Kingdoms of Devmark and Swedelaud, Empires of Rufa and Turkey, and into tbe Eafl ^nd Ucji-lndiet. Tbe LIVES and EF KIGIES of the moft Celebrated PRINTERS. A Chronological and Hiftorical DifLOurlc of tbe firft Introdudion oi P R I N T IN c into England, in the Rejgn of Hemy VI. {or rather EJ- A ' lijard

Fig. 4a. An intermediate stage of proof for the Proposals. Harl. 5906b, no. 30 The LIFE of W nil A 31 CJXTON,

PRINTER in the .Abbey of fJ'eflm'm/Ier.

.E was Borti in the fVmiJ of Kent fas he himfelf fjith) whercbioad£';/5///Aijfpoken; fee moreof himin Bale and -Pifts; tho' Dr. Fn/ler in his England's ICorthies fjith, he was Born in thcTown o^ Caxton in Hertford- Jhirci which I humbly conceive to be a Midake. He thank'd God that his Mother had taught him to Write and to Read, by which he now got hisLiving. fifl/f faith, hewasnotignorant of Letters; butvery He was bred a Mercer in the City oi' London, sijid a * C^'itjurcr of the fame Fraternity {who in thofe Days were grc-u Merchants) and he often went Swim into Foreign Countries, as Gerinany, Holland, Flanders, but never into , France, tho' he underrtood that Language perfeiftly well, as appears by fevcral Books he tr.milated out of that Language. L'pon the account of his often Travelling, anc being Mafter of the Ger- man, TJnteh, and /;Yttf/j Tongues, he was jud^d a Ht Perfon to be em- ployM with Vix.'Tumer, then Mafter of the Robes to King Henry VI. who at the Defire and Sollicitation of Thomas Bom-.htcr, then Arclibilhop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the Univerfity of Oxford, went to procure one of the Workmen from Harlem, to learn us hire in England the Art and Myftery of Printing; which C-i-vrort perform'd tc the Satisfai5lion and Ap- probation of the King and the Archbilhop, tho'it a great Kxpence. He formerly ufeii to travel to Cologn, and other Plates, to get feveral Books Printed, and fpent Thirty Years in fuch Expeditons. He was much erteemed in the Court of the Eutchefs oi Burgundy -, ftie was Sifter to our King EdwardW. and was hiip'eat Patronefs. He was alfo much inFavour with//'K«d'f/, and many others the bell of the Nobility of this Kingdom. But more efpecially with John Ifiif, Abbot a^ If^ejimhifter: He it was that fet his Printing-Prefs at Work, m a Place cr Chapel within the Prc- cinfts of the Abbey ; and, ^%.Ho'•JJell^m\^, in the great Elemofinary, com- I monly call'd the Ambrey, and to this Day the Houfe is the Sign of the

i Fig. 4b. An intermediate stage of proof for the 'Life of Caxton'. Harl. 5906b, no. 31 and the Bodleian's Rawlinson collections, it may also have to be concluded that he was rather closer to the achievement of his project than has hitherto been imagined. There are a number of essays that may cumulatively amount to the promised study of the beginning of printing and its early development. But except for tbe biblical bibliography—for which Bagford relied in very large part on Wanley—I suspect that he bad not made comparable progress on the bibliographical side of the promised work. Nevertheless, it may yet be demonstrated that he abandoned the history of printing because of the failure to secure adequate support by subscription and not because he lacked the ability to pursue his researches to their conclusion. Perhaps he was correct in his belief, stated in tbe Proposals, that the history could have been ready for subscribers 'at Easter term next, or sooner if Encouraged'. The amassing of a private collection of title-pages as the primary resource for research of the kind undertaken by Bagford seems curious to us, used as we are to public libraries with great collections and to the catalogues and other tools of reasearch produced by bibliographical scholarship since Bagford's day. Two explanatory observations need to be made. First, it should be recalled that Bagford's title-page collection contained some 3,600 items printed in English alone. Of these some 800 items—544 of them printed before 1701—are not recorded in the short-title catalogues.^^ Thus Wanley's remark that he found publications that he had never heard of before in Bagford's title-pages seems almost an understatement. Secondly, as Fletcher recognized, the first work published in England on Bagford's subject, Joseph Ames's Typographical Antiquities, or the History of Printing in England, Scotland^ and Ireland containing Memoirs of our Ancient Printers and a Register of the Books Printed by Them (1749) was written 'with tbe aid of similar materials'.^*' It may even be the case that Ames's work is in some way a direct outcome of Bagford's project; and if this is the case, the time and labour that were required to bring his work to fruition are further testimony to Bagford's erudition and resourcefulness as a pioneer in the history of the printed

in. BAGFORD'S OTHER ANTIQUARIAN PROJECTS Bagford also contributed to antiquarian studies not directly related to his projected history of printing, some having to do with bibliography, others more strictly archaeological. Amongst the bibliographical matters, several may be mentioned cursorily. Hearne owned an undated, autograph memorandum by Bagford on the history of the printed editions of Geoffrey Chaucer's works^^ which was doubtless first formulated for the history of printing but had wider ramifications. In 1709 Hearne wrote a letter on the bibliography of the works of Chaucer in response to Bagford's notes on the subject, and later printed the letter as an appendix to his edition of the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester.'"' Bagford seems to have given a copy of tbe letter to Bishop Moore, and reference was made to this copy (by then in the University Library, Cambridge) in correspondence between Hearne and the Cambridge antiquarian, Thomas Baker, in 1732;''^^ and the Hearne- Bagford exchange is said to have helped to stimulate the edition of Chaucer published by

164 John Urry in i72i.'^2 According to Hearne, Bagford had contributed a bibliography of English antiquarian studies to Edmund Gibson, one of the group of antiquarian scholars at The Queen's College, Oxford, and later Bishop of London, for his edition of 1695 of Camden's Britannia; Gibson neither acknowledged the source of this list nor paid Bagford the promised fee."^^ Bagford also contributed an essay on libraries in London, describing their holdings and their physical facilities and accessibility, to a little periodical called The Monthly Miscellany: or Memoirs for the Curious, which was edited by one of the subscribers to the history of printing, James Petiver, apothecary to the Charterhouse and naturalist. This piece was revised and enlarged by another antiquary, William Oldys, later in the eighteenth century, and the Oldys edition was reprinted in 1861.'^ Two more articles of an archaeological nature in Memoirs for the Curious can be assigned to Bagford on the basis of style and the similarity of their subject-matter to another of his publications. These papers, 'An Account of several Antiquities supposed to be buried by the Romans: also the most Remarkable Structures, Rarities, &c. in the City of London' and 'A Continuation of the several Antiquities . . .\^^ constitute an early attempt at compiling a guide to London from Roman times to the work of Inigo Jones. The major publication in this area to which they relate, however, is 'A Letter to the Publisher, written by the ingenious Mr. JOHN BAGFORD, in which are many curious Remarks relating to the City of LONDON, and some things about LELAND', which Hearne included in the introductory matter to his edition of the Collectanea of the great sixteenth-century antiquary, John Leland.**^ One of the great services to scholarship of the antiquaries of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was the editing of some of the most basic studies of English history and topography by Elizabethan scholars, among them Leland's Itineraria and Collectanea (both by Hearne), Camden's works (by Gibson, Hearne, and others), and Stow's Survey of London by John Strype, an acquaintance of Bagford's."^^ In all the projects named, Bagford had some interest. Hearne's edition of the Collectanea opens with a long epistolary preface addressed 'ad egregium Antiquarium, Brownum Willisium de Whaddon-Hall'; Willis's 'A view of the [Parliamentary] Mitred Abbeys, with a Catalogue of their respective Abbats' was printed in volume six of the new Leland, some 260 pages with over forty pages of 'preliminary Observations' by Hearne. Contributions by other antiquaries appear here and there throughout the edition; but except for materials on the life of Leland, Bagford's 'Letter' is given pride of place at the beginning of the initial volume (pp. lviii-lxxvi), with no apparent editorial intrusions by Hearne. The printed letter is dated i February 1714/15 from the 'Charter-House'. The letter begins with a survey of evidence for the Roman occupation of London. Bagford imagines that the Romans 'landed near Dover, and from thence proceeded by easy Journeys towards this City, raising their Military Ways, and at every ten Miles Distance fixing their Stations or Camps' (p. lviii). He notes several recent discoveries that have added to the evidence for the occupation in Kent and Surrey, where they 'left many Remains behind them for future Ages to admire' (p. lix). Coming closer to the city, he discusses spots at which the Roman foot and mounted troops might have forded the Thames, which 'you must suppose ... was much wider, and consequently much shallower than it is now, there being then no Wharf, Key, nor Bridge, but a smooth Sand to land upon' (p. lix). He then describes the Roman encampment and fortifications. He notes that the White Tower of the Tower of London descends from Roman times and was also used by the Saxons. Modifications in the reign of Charles I have greatly changed the outward appearance of the White Tower since Leland's time. He chides John Stow for failing to note that Goodman's Fields was a Roman cemetery. The nearby Spittlefields served as the Roman 'Field of Mars' for military exercises: 'if any sudden Tumults or Insurrections should happen in the City, they were then ready and at hand to suppress them' (p. Ixi). The Barbican and other fortifications are also mentioned. Bagford points to the decorations of existing buildings as evidence for the presence of Roman remains in particular areas. For example, near the site of the Barbican are two houses dated 1589: 'On the Front of them are the Figures of some old Roman Coyns, which I suppose might be found in digging the foundations for Building of those Houses, and I am apt to believe that the Builder for his Curiosity might cause Moulds of the same to be made as large as the Brims of a middle sized Hat, and that the Plaisterer took them off, and fixed them in the Front, under the first Storey Window' (p. lxii). Other evidences in the same neighbourhood are noted. Bagford further observes that the Great Fire of 1666 had brought to light a number of artefacts unknown in the age of Leland and Stow. Acknowledgement is given to the apothecary, John Conyers, who was an assiduous antiquary. 'Digging for gravel in a Field near to the Sign of Sir John Old-Castle in the Fields, not far from Battlebridge' and an old river now drained, Conyers discovered the remains of an elephant (p. lxiv). This is not, Bagford believes, a relic of the 'Universal Deluge' but of the Roman occupation, and it must have been 'killed in some Fight by a Britain'. This leads Bagford to discourse on British flint weapons, one of which (formerly in the possession of Dr Arthur Charlett of University College, Oxford, and now in the collection of John Kemp) he illustrates in its 'exact Form and Bigness' (p. Ixv). It is not necessary to paraphrase Bagford's account of the Roman remains in London at greater length; nor is it necessary to review the later pages of the 'Letter', which contain observations on such matters as architectural styles in London in more recent years and the usefulness of old maps as resources for the historical study of urban topography. It should, perhaps, be acknowledged that the preceding summary account may make Bagford appear more credulous than does the original, since his more fanciful hypotheses have been selected for reference. It must, therefore, be remembered that Bagford's reflections on the archaeology of London were given pride of place in an antiquarian publication of the utmost scholarly respectability in its time, just as it also needs to be pointed out that in many respects Bagford's line of argument resembles that of the best scientific minds of his century. It is perhaps the omnivorous universalism of his collecting and his observation (a trait he shares with Sloane and the Harleys, among many others) that makes his conclusions seem dated and quaint. Any sympathetic reader must at least conclude that Bagford knew and loved his city, and expended no little effort to understand and explain its history.

166 Throughout this account Bagford documents his assertions not only by claiming personal observation but also by making clear and explicit reference to the present whereabouts of his sources. Jdin Conyers, for example, left a manuscript account of his studies of pottery found on the west side of St PauPs during the digging of tbe foundations for Wren's church 'which is now in the Hands', very probably through Bagford's agency, 'of the ingenious and learned Dr. Hans Sloane' (MS. Sloane 958). He places value on such a document not only because of its interest as a curiosity but also (and more importantly) 'because we were much in the dark before these Antiquities were found out in digging the Foundations of Churches and Houses since tbe Fire. For what had formerly been done by Leland ... seems now to be quite lost, tho' it must be own'd that many Authors that have written of the Antiquities of England since his time, have made frequent use of his Works, he alone laying the foundation of what hath since been discover'd' (p. lxviii). All but tbe most avid folklorists may find it difficult to take seriously Bagford's arguments that folk customs of his own times descend from the Romans: 'Prize-Fighting', for example, 'which I can ascribe to nothing else but the same sort of Exercise practised by the Roman Gladiators' (p. lxxv). Even such arguments, however, are methodologically of a piece with Bagford's whole practice; for he was a contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton and, like the great physicist, believed in the importance of personal observation and demonstration. Fortunately, Hearne retained the manuscript of this letter submitted to him by Bagford for publication, a fair copy in the hand of one of Bagford's amanuenses."^ It contains a very few manuscript notes in Bagford's own hand, but most of the revisions seem to be Hearne's copy-editing for the press. The changes are few and minor. Once, for example, Hearne changes Bagford's text to achieve subject-verb agreement ('a famous Glass Roman Urne, which are not commonly seen', fol. 16^) creating a correct but convoluted sentence ('... Urn; which I the more willingly take notice of, because Urns of this kind are scarce, and are not commonly seen', p. lviii). Again, he tones Bagford down, deleting a criticism of Sir Christopher Wren (fol. 29, p. lxviii). He takes some pains to clarify his own and Bagford's mutual suspicion that Stow in the Survey of London borrowed from Leland without acknowledgement and 'mangled the Work on purpose to make it his own' (fols. 30-1, pp. lxviii-Ixix). A number of additions (e.g. to the opening paragraph and the discussion of printed sources of historical topography) were made later, probably in the process of proof correcting, but these seem fairly certainly to have been Bagford's own amplifications. In other words, Thomas Hearne, one of the most learned and meticulous scholars of the age, could accept a text from Bagford as serious work that did not require extensive correction as to fact, or editing for style, before publication. This, added to the evidence relating to the Proposals presented above, suggests that all Bagford's printed work is substantially his own and was not rewritten or wholly written by his editors and publishers. Though selective and incomplete, this examination of some of the materials for a life of John Bagford should considerably modify the received understanding of his life and achievements. It is time to revise the general impression of John Bagford as a bookseller and as an antiquary. Acquaintance with his collections and writings, and knowledge of his 167 reputation among his associates and contemporaries, do not support the old caricature of Bagford as a minor eccentric in an age of great eccentrics. It would be more accurate to say that, in an age blessed with a large number of learned people, Bagford was a remarkable autodidact. It is, moreover, evident that, in an age of friendly discourse, in letters as in conversation, he was valued as a friend despite the simplicity of his background and person, as a correspondent despite his bad hand and spelling, and as a conversational companion despite his humble origins. The circle of those who shared this opinion was wide, drawn not only from London's bookselling fraternity but also including acquaintances and clients, who ranged from university scholars to lay and episcopal members of the House of Lords. Lord Harley was pleased to be able to purchase not only Bagford's papers but also his portrait by Hugh Howard, which Harley thought 'a very good one' and allowed the engraver George Vertue to copy (fig. i).'^^The portrait shows not the caricature encouraged by Blades and Dibdin but the man who was known to his contemporaries. He is round of face, gentle of eye, simply dressed in a plain coat with white neckcloth, the one depicted hand showing signs of both work and arthritis. This is the same man for whom Thomas Rawlinson wrote a memorial inscription, in a language its subject barely knew: self-taught and plain of tongue, trusted bookseller, valued antiquary, 'Honest John Bagford'.^°

1 James Sotheby to Thomas Hearne, Letters Writ- Drawings, where apparently no notes of prove- ten by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and nance were made. The material now in the Eighteenth Centuries . . . (London, 1813), vol. ii, Department of Printed Books is described in part I, pp. 21-3. A. W. Pollard, 'A Rough List of the Contents 2 William Blades, The Enemies of Books (London, of the Bagford Collection', Transactions of the 1880), p. 96; Thomas Frognall Dibdin, The Bibliographical Society., vii (1902-4), pp. 143-59, Bibliomania; or Book-Madness . . . (London, reprinted in Melvin Wolf (ed.). Catalogue and 1809), p. 13. The notice of Bagford in DNB is Indexes to the Title-Pages of English Printed Books based on Blades and Dibdin, despite the fact that preserved in the British Library^s Bagford Collec-* Dibdin had modified' his views in the second tion (London, 1974), pp. xvii-xxvii. edition of Bibliomania (London, 1811), pp. 430- Other materials collected by Bagford and 7, in light of Hearne's estimate of Bagford. Even owned from 1707 by Sir Hans Sloane are also in so eminent an historian as Joan Evans, in A the Library. See Nickson, art. cit., n. 4 below. History of the Society of Antiquaries (Oxford, For some indication of Bagford materials in other 1956), p. 38, can report only that he 'was an libraries, see the article by the present writer, also eccentric shoemaker and collector of ballads, who cited in n. 4 below. A catalogue tracing Bagford- cut out innumerable title-pages from books as related materials in other collections (e.g. the material for a history of printing'. Rawlinson collection of the Bodleian Library, 3 The material still in Bagford's hands at the time Oxford) would be a first step towards a full study of his death was purchased by Robert Harley, 1st of Bagford's life and career. Earl of Oxford, and is now part of the Harley 4 The earliest (very knowledgeable) assessments are collection in the British Library. The printed by William Younger Fletcher in English Book matter in these albums was removed from the Collectors (London, 1902), pp. 129-37, and'John Department of Manuscripts to that of Printed Bagford and His Collections', Transactions of the Books in 1890; details of the transfer are given in Bibliographical Society, iv (1896-8), pp. 185- C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972), 201. Fletcher regards ballads as a special interest Appendix II. Some material also went to the of Bagford's, perhaps because his collection of British Museum's Department of Prints and broadsides had been published by Joseph Wood-

168 fall Ebsworth as The Bagford Ballads (London, 7 Fletcher, English Book Collectors, pp. 129-30. 1878). A full study of Bagford, however, will John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth show that the ballad collection was only an aspect Century . . . (London, 1812-15; reprinted New of the history of printing and not a second 'great York, 1966), vol. ii, p. 462, confused a reference collection'. Seymour De Ricci, in his English to the birth of the younger John in British Collectors of Books £5* Manuscripts [1530-1936] Library, MS. Harl. 5979, with that of the father. and their Marks of Ownership (Cambridge, 1930), 8 MS. Harl. 5910, part iv, fols. 35-6, 43-4; power p. 34, generally concurred with Fletcher's assess- of attorney to Bagford in 1713, MS. Harl. ment. More recently, Margaret Nickson has 5995, fol. 257. The possibility that Bagford discussed Bagford's association with a major remarried in 1703 is raised by a letter of felicita- client in 'Bagford and Sloane', The British tions on a rumoured or impending marriage from Library Journal, ix (1983), pp. 51-5. The present John Sturt (MS. Harl. 4966, fol. 139). writer has discussed Bagford's clients and his 9 MS. Harl. 5910, part iii, fol. 120; printed by dealings in fragments from manuscripts in 'John Robert Steele, 'John Bagford's Own Account of Bagford as a Collector and Disseminator of his Collection of Title-pages, etc.', The Library, Manuscript Fragments', The Library, 6th ser. xii NS viii (1907), pp. 223-4. (1985), pp. 95-114, and in the historical introduc- 10 Henry R. Plomer's A List of the Printers and tion to the forthcoming catalogue of the collection Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scot- of fragmenta manuscripta now in the Ellis land, and Ireland from 1668 to j-j25 (Oxford, Library of the University of Missouri. 1922) lists Bateman and Bullord (for whom 5 Hearne, Remarks and Collections, ed. C. E. Doble, Plomer has no record after 1701). John Murray D. W. Rannie, and H. E. Salter (Oxford, 1885- was a frequent correspondent of Hearne's, and 1921), vol. V, pp. 357 (30 November 1716) and appears in the list of subscribers to his edition of 359 (letter to Rawlinson, same date): 'HIC • SITUS • Camden as 'of London, Gent.', the same entry JOANNES • BAGFORDIUS " ANTIQUARIUS • PENITUS • used for Sotheby. But Thomas Rawlinson's BRITANNUS • / CVJUS • NVDA • SOLERTIA • ALIORUM • angry remark to Hearne (who, in turn defended VICIT • OPEROSAM • DILIGENTIAM • j . . . j VIRl • Murray) that 'John Bagford . . . was a much SIMPLICIS • ET • SINE • FUCO • / MEMORIA • NE • honester Man than John Murray, and more FERIRET • / HVNC • LAPIDEM • POSVIT.' The knowing . . .' {Remarks and Collections, vol. 8, translation is mine; I do not know that the stone p. 407; 31 July 1725), suggests that Murray may was ever erected in the Charterhouse graveyard. also have been involved in the book trade. Hearne gave extended tribute in print to Bagford 11 English Book Collectors, p. 135. in his editions of Camden, Annales Rerum Angli- 12 Nickson, 'Bagford and Sloane'. I owe my know- carum et Hibernicarum Regnante Elizabetha ledge of the manuscript to Dr Nickson's kindness, (Oxford, 1717), vol. i, p. cxxxiii, and Leland, and she has most generously helped me to Antiquarii de Rebus Britannicis Collectanea (1715), decipher and understand it. vol. vi, p. 40 and vol. iii, p. 431. For an assessment 13 Tasell is not recorded in Ellic Howe, A List of of Hearne as a scholar, see David C. Douglas, London Bookbinders 1648-181$ (London, 1950). English Scholars, 1660-IJ30 (1939; 2nd edn., 14 For more detail on some of these and on other London, 1951), pp. 178-94. Except as they are persons mentioned in the Book of Accounts, see summarized in Remarks and Collections, I have Gatch, 'Bagford as a Collector and Disseminator not examined Bagford's letters to Hearne (Bod- of Manuscript Fragments', pp. 100-6. leian Library, MSS. Rawl., Letters 20, 21). 15 See DNB, J. G. Jenkins, The Dragon of 6 See n. i above. James Sotheby was an antiquarian Whaddon, being an account of the life and work of who had matriculated in 1700 at St Catherine's Browne Willis {1682-1/60) . . . (High Wycombe, College, Cambridge, where his father and name- 1953), and Hearne's Remarks and Collections, sake bad also matriculated in 1671, Venn, Alumni passim. I have not here attempted any reference to Cantabrigienses. Later in Remarks and Collec- Willis's own papers and letters. His antiquarian tions, vol. X, pp. 245-6, Hearne reported that collections are Bodleian Library MSS. Willis Sotheby, once (aided by wealth and his single I-I 10, and among the manuscripts left to the state) an industrious antiquary, had become 'a British Museum by the Revd. William Cole, who mear sot'. held the living at Bletchley at the time of Willis's

169 death and who had worked with Willis on his Bagford before his death and tried to get the antiquarian projects. papers for Hearne, 25 August 1718); vol. vii, Books from Willis's library were offered for p. 287 (Hearne to Wanley, 20 October 1721). sale in London in 1849 by the bookseller Thomas 24 Gatch, 'John Bagford as a Collector and Dis- Thorpe, and by Thomas Kerslake in Bristol in seminator of Manuscript Fragments', pp. 99- 1850. 106. 16 Remarks and Collections, vol. v, pp. 437-50 and 25 'An Essay on the Invention of Printing, by Mr. 349-50; also printed in Letters Written by Eminent John Bagford; with an Account of his Collections Persons . . ., vol. ii, part i, pp. 175-83. for the same by Mr. Humfrey Wanley, F.R.S. 17 History of the Society of Antiquaries, p. 55. Communicated in Two Letters to Dr. Hans Sloane, 18 The bifolium has a separate pagination and may R.S.^^irr.', Royal Society, Philosophical Trans- once have been unbound. The usual difficulty actions, xxv (1706-7), pp. 2397-410. Wanley's of reading Bagford's hand is increased in these letter (which is pp. 2407-10 in the printed pages by his cancellations as accounts were version) is MS. Sloane 4040, fol. 355 (6 May settled or orders delivered. 1707). Because of the binding, it is not possible to 26 A number of copies—some of them proofs analyse the compilation of the volume. It appears with variants or corrections—survive in Harl. tome that at least fols. 1-56 (probably fols. 1-89, 5906b, nos. 28-31; 5908, fols. 83-4; 5995, fols. since all are trimmed to the same size) were 250-5; MS. Sloane 1044, fol. 309; Bodleian, assembled by Bagford for binding and foliated MSS. Rawl. D. 396, fol. 83; 399, fols. 1-2. An (incompletely and with some errors) by him. The early manuscript draft is in MS. Rawl. D. 396, rest of the volume—documents numbered as fol. 78. (See further below on the textual history fols. 90-102 and some blank pages (a few with of the Proposals.) A broadside advertisement documents pasted to them) which are larger than for the project. An Essay towards a Historical fols. 1-89—appears to have been assembled in Treatise, on . . . Typography is preserved as MS. the present form for the Museum's binders. Rawl. D. 396, fol. 83, and in a copy at the 19 Next to the total there is the note 'pd'. Houghton Library, Harvard University. 20 Titles sometimes abbreviated where there is no 27 In fact, Bagford owned a leaf from the Gutenberg possibihty of confusion. Except for numbers 13 42-line Bible (now IC.56a), which he had trans- and 24, which have been expanded from the ferred at about the time of the writing of the British Library's General Catalogue, all informa- 'Essay' to Sloane. Eberhard Koenig, 'A Leaf tion comes from A. W. Pollard and G. R. from a Gutenberg Bible Illuminated in England', Redgrave, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books British Library Journal, ix (1983), pp. 32-50. Printed in England..., 13^5-1640 (London, 1926 28 These volumes remained at the Tenison Library for A-H; 2nd edn., London, 1976 for I-Z) (STC) until its dispersal in 1861. The Fragmenta manu- and Donald Wing, A Short-Title Catalogue . . ., scripta are now at the University of Missouri, 1641-1700 (2nd edn., New York, 1972 and 1982 Columbia, and the printed Fragmenta varia in the for vols. 1-2; vol. 3, New York, 1951) (Wing). All University Library, Cambridge. Their history is books published in London unless otherwise the subject of my introduction to the catalogue of noted. the manuscript fragments in preparation by 21 Royal Society, Philosophical Transactions, xxv Karen Gould and Linda E. Voigts. (1706-7), p. 2407 (see also n. 25 below). 29 Remarks and Collections, vol. ii, p. 61 (to Thomas 22 Letters Written by Eminent Persons, vol ii, part i, Smith, II October 1707). pp. 21-3. 30 Nickson, 'Bagford and Sloane', p. 52. 23 Hearne, Remarks and Collections, vol. v, p. 218 31 The letter, MS. Rawl. D. 396, fols. 19-21, (letter to Sotheby, 8 May 1716); p. 233 (John 'Derected to D'' Sloane & printed in y^ phi Bridges to Hearne, 5 June); p. 359 (Hearne to Transaction', contains most of the latter half of Thomas Rawlinson, 30 November); p. 375 (Lord the 'Essay' (from p. 2401, 'Since my second Harley to Hearne, 19 December); p,. 376 voyage to Holland . . .'). It seems likely that (Hearne's response to Harley, hoping a history Sloane appended this material to Bagford's first might still be printed from Bagford's collections, draft of the 'Essay'. If so, Sloane—rather than 23 December); vol. vi, p. 217 (Murray was with Bagford—was responsible for one of the major

170 stylistic disjunctions of the version printed in that Gibson had altered Bagford's work to such Philosophical Transactions.! have not collated this an extent that he regarded it as his own; further document fully with the printed 'Essay'. light might be shed by a search of Bagford's 32 For example, the 'letter' printed by Hearne in manuscripts. his edition of Leland's Collectanea, discussed 44 'An Account of Several Libraries in and about below. London, for the Satisfaction of the Curious, both 33 MS. Harl. 5906b, fols. 55, 57 (29 October and Natives and Foreigners', Memoirs for the Curious, 3 March 1707). Tanner had his first copy of the June 1708, a reprint in one volume of vols. 1-2 Proposals from Benjamin Took, a bookseller of The Monthly Miscellany: or Memoirs for the whose name was on the first, shorter list of Curious 1707-8 (London, 1710), vol. ii, pp. subscription agents. 167-82. The Oldys version is printed by J. 34 MS. Rawl. D. 396, fol. 83^, note in Hearne's Yeowell, 'London Libraries', Notes and Queries, hand: 'All these Papers from the Beginning of this 2nd ser. xi (1861), pp. 381-4, 401-4, 421-4, Book hitherto belonged to M"" John Bagford, who 441-4, 461-4. Yeowell identified Bagford as writ most of them. They afterwards came to that author of this unsigned piece. On Bagford's admirable Physician D*" Richard Mead (my great manuscripts of the piece, see my introduction to and learned Friend) who gave them to me.' The the Fragmenta Manuscripta catalogue. end of the note indicates that it was written after 45 Memoirs for the Curious, April and May 1708, vol. Harley had acquired Bagford's collections. The ii, pp. 113-22 and 149-51. At p. 113 there is a Bagford materials in MS. Rawl. D. 396 do not cross-reference to the essay on libraries, which end at fol. 83, but it seems to me likely that the was evidently submitted first but published later. arrangement and contents of the volume were 46 John Leland, Antiquarii de Rebus Britannicis altered after Hearne wrote this note. Collectanea (Oxford, 1715), vol. i, pp. Iviii- 35 Steele, art. cit., n. 9 above; Cyril Davenport, lxxxvi. 'Bagford's Notes on Bookbindings', Transac- 47 MS. Sloane 1066 is a collection by Bagford of tions of the Bibliographical Society, vii (1902-4), materials for the new edition of Stow. For recent pp. 123-42. notice (not precisely accurate) of Bagford's con- 36 Wolf, Catalogue and Indexes, p. ix. Wolf, of tributions to the Hearne edition of Leland and to course, does not reflect the revisions of the Strype's Stow, see Joseph M. Levine, Dr. Wood- short-title catalogues published since 1974 or ward^s Shield: History, Science and Satire in currently in progress. Augustan England (Berkeley, California, 1977), 37 English Book Collectors, p. 132. especially pp. 139-40. 38 On Ames, see Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, vol. v, 48 MS. Rawl. Letter 86. Tbe letter is the only item pp. 256-68. in this manuscript, folios other than 16-55 being 39 MS. Rawl. D. 396, fols. 98-9. blank. Fol. 56 is an engraving of a Roman relief 40 Hearne (ed.), Robert of Gloucester''s Chronicle by Michael Burghers that was reproduced by (Oxford, 1724), Appendix IV, pp. 596-606. Hearne in Collectanea, vol. i, p. Ixxi, 41 Remarks and Collections, vol. xi, p. 160 (23 August 49 Letter to Hearne, 19 December 1716, Remarks 1732)- and Collections, vol. v, p. 375. The portrait was 42 William L. Alderson and Arnold C. Henderson, later purchased by Thomas Rawlinson and left to Chaucer and Augustan Scholarship (Berkeley, the Bodleian Library. 1970), pp. 69-73. 50 The expression was often used, e.g. by Harley in 43 Hearne, Remarks and Collections, vol. viii, p. 329 the letter in Letters Written by Eminent Persons (6 February 1724/5); see also vol. iv, p. 248 (2 cited in n. 22 and by Hearne in a letter to November 1713). The list to which Hearne refers Rawlinson, 7 September 1716, Remarks and must be 'A Catalogue of Some Books and Collections, p. 282. The use of'honest' I take to be Treatises Relating to the Antiquities of England', precisely that in definition (c.) in the Oxford five unnumbered pages in the front matter of English Dictionary: 'a vague epithet of apprecia- Gibson's Camden^s Britannia Newly Translated tion or praise, esp. as used in a patronizing way to into English . . . (London, 1695). It seems likely an inferior'.

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